Marta Lepp
Marta Sophia Lepp 'Utuste, also known as Sophia Vardi and Maarda Lepp-Utuste', was an Estonian writer, editor, educator, and political and religious leader.
Lepp was born in Varbola, the daughter of Priidik Lepp and Maria Sassi Lepp. She attended schools in Tallinn and trained as a teacher in Saint Petersburg.
Career
For her revolutionary activities, Lepp was imprisoned in Siberia in 1905, 1907, and 1910; she escaped at least once before her official release in 1910. In 1917, she returned to Estonia, where she taught Estonian language and history in Tallinn; she was also head of a women's political organization, and was editor of a newspaper, Our Free Land. She and her husband were adherents and leaders of Taaraism, an Estonian neo-pagan religion. Her writing included short stories, an opera libretto, a novel, and a three-volume memoir.
Lepp married soldier Gustav Vladimir Kirschbaum in 1913. Their son Reljo Utuste was born in Tallinn in 1923. Their nephew was writer. She died in 1940, the day before her 57th birthday, in Tartu. There is a collection of her papers at the University of Minnesota.